Check out other season previews here
Last Year
After looking like good things for the coveted top-4 position at the mid-way mark of the year,
Brisbane’s season went down-hill as they somehow managed to miss the finals after only winning 3 of their last 11 games. This happened despite winning 7 of their first 11 of the year.
2008 was also Leigh Matthews last season at the club after winning 3 premierships from 2001 to 2003. The lack of competitiveness displayed towards the end of the season made everyone aware of the trappings of having a relatively youthful list like the Lions have. Despite missing out on the finals they had a few highlights to come out of the year. Daniel Bradshaw’s excellent return from his knee reconstruction with 75 goals after rupturing his ACL and the emergence of Jarred Brennan and Brad Dalzeill as centre-square options were excellent in adding to Brisbane’s quality in its 22’. The biggest highlight of 2008 was actually off-field with the re-signing of the irreplaceable Jonathan Brown in a deal that will keep him at the Lions for 4 more years. This year, Michael Voss has replaced Leigh Matthews at the club that he was always destined to become the head-coach of. Voss, with no previous AFL coaching experience is straight into the deep-end and much of the Lions performance will be dictated on how quickly he learns the coaching caper and how quickly the team learns his game plan. That, whilst adding to key players like Black, Charman and Merrett starting round one without a pre-season game played between them, the start may be a little bit rocky. Backline The Lions have one of the younger backlines in the comp and with Voss being new on the scene and with a few options; it’s a hard to see it being settled for a good while. Still there is a lot too like about the collection of players that Matthew’s assembled after their era of domination finished. Brisbane had one of the best backlines in modern footy back then and within a few years, players like Leppitsch, Michael, Pike, and Johnson had to be replaced. Looking at their current tall-backs, Daniel Merrett and Joel Patfull have grown into solid defenders after both originally being drafted as forwards doing the job with minimum fuss. Joel McDonald and Josh Drummond are excellent in their roles as small defenders who hurt you the other way. If those two in particular can stay on the park for an entire season (both have played around half of the games possible since their debut), Brisbane will be a much better team for it. The likes of Jason Roe, Henderson, Adcock, McGrath and Collier will be competing for the remainder of the spots up for grabs. Either-way, the sooner the Lions get the backline settled, the quicker these youngsters will improve. Midfield The Lions’ midfield is a nice mix of in-and-under and class. Black is elite with Power being not too shabby as well. With the recent additions of Brad Dalzeill (he ain’t no’ flash in the pan) and Brennan as an excellent clearance winner, they have a group genuine centre-square midfielders that can hold their own. Add in the likes of Johnstone who had a pretty good first year at the club, the courageous Rischitelli and players rotating through like Adcock, Proud, Stiller, Hooper and Sherman you have players who have a variety of skills and strength. Their first-round pick from last years draft Daniel Rich is expected to get games with his ready-made body and the Lions’ are no doubt hoping he is as good as he has been hyped up to be. Jamie Charman will be the number one ruckman with either Matthew Leuenberger or Mitchell Clark taking the second spot. Leuenberger, a player with a heap-of potential and is one player that can really help Brisbane improve this year with is athleticism and skills around the ground. Forward The twin towers of Brown and Bradshaw make an impressive partnership that is only second to the Franklin/Roughead duo. There is a heavy reliance on the two but given their quality, you wouldn’t call it unhealthy at all. Mitchell Clark will most likely be the third tall unless he is needed in the ruck or is injured which unfortunately occurs a fair bit. Scott Harding has been quite good in the pre-season as a nimble small forward. Justin Sherman will look to turn over a new leaf with a new coach after struggling under Leigh Matthews in recent years. The other versatile half-forwards like Johnstone, Hooper and Proud will be in the forward line more than a few times throughout the year. Summery/Expected finish The Lions’ enter the season with a relatively young group that apart from their experienced gems are fairly even. The evenness really shows when looking at the players from 14-28. The likes of Notting, Hooper, Collier, Stiller, Henderson, Rich, Polkinghorne, and Selwood could have quite easily made anybody else’s best 22. This shows me the depth, albeit largely inexperienced depth. Their pre-season has been nothing too special which is a bit worrying. With Voss being a rookie coach, it’s not like he has the experience to get them playing well straight away. One thing he does have is the instant respect of being one the legends of the club and the game which will definitely help and at the very least, provide him a lot of time. It’s probably best to expect a poor start whilst the team gets settled and get’s used to his game plan but with the likes of Brown, Black, Power and Bradshaw, I’d be surprised if they don’t end up pushing for the eight. 8th – 10th Best 22 FB: MacDonald, Merrett, McGrath HB: Adcock, Patfull, Drummond C: Rischitelli, Brennan, Dalzeill HF: Johnstone, Brown, Sherman FF: Clark, Bradshaw, Harding FOL: Charman, Black, Power INT: Proud, Leuenberger, Hooper, Roe
Tags: 2009 Previews, Jonathan Brown, Leigh Matthews, Michael Voss
Stay Up-to-date
Never miss a big story again by subscribing to us by RSS, email or twitter.
